Will GTA V be ready by March?

David Konow, 1st January 2013

When you sit down and think about what the big game of 2013 will be, Grand Theft Auto V usually first comes to mind.

Although gaming was mostly down in 2012, the last quarter of the year saw huge profits with Halo 4 and Call of Duty Black Ops 2. And in the first quarter of 2013, GTA should be the big daddy in gaming.

GTA V currently has a release date of March 26, 2013, but now there’s some fan speculation it may not make this date. As

notes, GTA is scheduled to launch right up against BioShock Infinite, which is another hotly anticipated title for ’13. In Hollywood, we often see two huge potential blockbuster movies go head to head, but it’s hard to think off the top of our heads if the gaming business plays the same game of chicken.

Not to mention, GTA V and BioShock are also coming out through the same game publisher, Take-Two Interactive. As Gamepur points out, "Both these games appeals to different genre of gamers, and so Take-Two, Rockstar Games and Irrational Games in every possible way would like to avoid a situation of eating into each other’s profit share."

March is also going to indeed be a big month for new games, including Fuse, God of War: Ascension, and the Tomb Raider reboot. Maybe now with gaming heading towards a comeback, maybe the competition among games is going to get tough, and some titles may have to move out of the way to get away from the big juggernauts.

It’s not clear if there’s going to truly be gaming scheduling problems in the near future or not, but maybe all these games coming out close to each other could create healthy competition and saturation instead of an implosion.

It was unreal to see Halo 4 have a huge debut, and Call of Duty also made insane money as well. Similarly, GTA V is on track for big numbers, and it will be interesting to see its impact on gaming overall, as well as if all the new games coming next year will indeed bring the market out of the doldrums.